KUALA LUMPUR, March 18 — National sprint king Khairul Hafiz Jantan proved he is in a class of his own when he clocked  10.34 seconds in the 100m en route to the gold medal at the FTKLAA / MILO 2018 All Comers Championship at the National Sports Council (NSC) Mini Stadium in Bukit Jalil, here, today.

What was even more amazing was that this was the first competitive appearance of the 100m and 200m national record holder in seven months, after recovering from a hamstring injury he suffered during the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur (KL2017).

The 19-year-old said his participation in the meet today was to regain competitiveness after a long rest, and as a warm-up ahead of the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, next month.

“The meet today was to regain the feel of running the 100m, because I have just recovered from injury. This is my first meet and Thank God, I was able to record 10.34s, and I am grateful to my coach (Mohd Poad Md Kassim).

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“With this time recorded, I will be more enthusiastic and double my efforts at training so that I can reach the final of the 100m event at the Commonwealth Games,” he said.

In addition to reaching the final in Gold Coast, the Melaka-born athlete is also seeking to smash his 10.18s national record set during the Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Sarawak 2016.

“The competition at the Commonwealth Games is very fierce, but I just want to focus on my run, and try to break the 10.18s record, or at least match it,” he added.

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Khairul Hafiz, nicknamed ‘Speedy Jantan’ ended the country’s 14-year-old gold medal drought in the 100m event at KL2017, beating defending champion Eric Cray of the Philippines. — Bernama